Twitter suspends Zero Hedge’s account for spreading fake news on coronavirus

San Francisco, February 2

Twitter has permanently suspended markets blog Zero Hedge’s Twitter account, @zerohedge, for violating company’s policy after it posted a new showing a genuine Chinese researcher as the man who created “the strain of coronavirus that’s currently spreading around the world”.

That blog lists a name, photo, email, and phone number that are reportedly tied to the scientist.

The news item suggested that readers “pay [him] a visit” if they wanted to know “what really caused the coronavirus pandemic.” 

According to The Verge, Twitter has permanently suspended Zero Hedge’s account.

Twitter said in a blog post that it would remove users that it felt were spreading disinformation at scale about the coronavirus outbreak.

Zero Hedge grew to prominence after the 2008 financial crisis and regularly shares pessimistic world views.

Twitter said that given the rapidly evolving nature of the issue and the growing international response, it has launched a new dedicated search prompt.

“This is to ensure that when you come to the service for information about the #coronavirus, you’re met with credible, authoritative information first. In addition, we’re halting any auto-suggest results that are likely to direct individuals to non-credible content on Twitter,” said Twitter. — IANS